Where The Sidealk Ends

Otto Preminger - 1950
This is a kind of anti-Preminger film, in that he turns his usual strategy on its head. Here we, the audience, know exactly (or at least to the key points) what happened, the truth, and we have a front-row seat at the allusions, evasions, investigation, and attempts to uncover it.
There is the more Preminger-esque touch of the man, ambiguous, insane with desire, attempting to violently make the truth exactly what he wants it to be. In a 'Vertigo'-esque manner he decides that the truth will fit his desire, he takes on another man's role, tries to make the case fit what he wants to be the facts, will even die to make the truth satisfy his lust.
This is very much an explicitly noir-ish looking picture. Some very low angles, hats, shadows, all that great stuff. There is some nice geometric shots in cars, and a camera position on a flight of stairs that tilts up and down. Perhaps slightly less distinctively Premingerean in its themes than others, all the same this is a very impressive noir.